TY - JOUR
T1 - Motor recovery in post-stroke patients with aphasia
T2 - The role of specific linguistic abilities
AU - Ginex, Valeria
AU - Veronelli, Laura
AU - Vanacore, Nicola
AU - Lacorte, Eleonora
AU - Monti, Alessia
AU - Corbo, Massimo
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Background: Aphasia is a serious consequence of stroke but aphasics patients have been routinely excluded from participation in some areas of stroke research. Objective: To assess the role of specific linguistic and non-verbal cognitive abilities on the short-term motor recovery of patients with aphasia due to first-ever stroke to the left hemisphere after an intensive rehabilitation treatment. Methods: 48 post-acute aphasic patients, who underwent physiotherapy and speech language therapy, were enrolled for this retrospective cohort-study. Four types of possible predictive factors were taken into account: clinical variables, functional status, language and non-verbal cognitive abilities. The motor FIM at discharge was used as the main dependent variable. Results: Patients were classified as follows: 6 amnestic, 9 Broca’s, 7 Wernicke’s, and 26 global aphasics. Motor FIM at admission (p = 0.003) and at discharge (p = 0.042), all linguistic subtests of Aachener AphasieTest (p = 0.001), and non-verbal reasoning abilities (Raven’s CPM, p = 0.006) resulted significantly different across different types of aphasia. Post-hoc analyses showed differences only between global aphasia and the other groups. A Multiple Linear Regression shows that admission motor FIM (p = 0.001) and Token test (p = 0.040), adjusted for clinical, language, and non-verbal reasoning variables, resulted as independent predictors of motor FIM scores at discharge, while Raven’s CPM resulted close to statistical significance. Conclusions: Motor function at admission resulted as the variable that most affects the motor recovery of post-stroke patients with aphasia after rehabilitation. A linguistic test requiring also non-linguistic abilities, including attention and working memory (i.e. Token test) is an independent predictor as well.
AB - Background: Aphasia is a serious consequence of stroke but aphasics patients have been routinely excluded from participation in some areas of stroke research. Objective: To assess the role of specific linguistic and non-verbal cognitive abilities on the short-term motor recovery of patients with aphasia due to first-ever stroke to the left hemisphere after an intensive rehabilitation treatment. Methods: 48 post-acute aphasic patients, who underwent physiotherapy and speech language therapy, were enrolled for this retrospective cohort-study. Four types of possible predictive factors were taken into account: clinical variables, functional status, language and non-verbal cognitive abilities. The motor FIM at discharge was used as the main dependent variable. Results: Patients were classified as follows: 6 amnestic, 9 Broca’s, 7 Wernicke’s, and 26 global aphasics. Motor FIM at admission (p = 0.003) and at discharge (p = 0.042), all linguistic subtests of Aachener AphasieTest (p = 0.001), and non-verbal reasoning abilities (Raven’s CPM, p = 0.006) resulted significantly different across different types of aphasia. Post-hoc analyses showed differences only between global aphasia and the other groups. A Multiple Linear Regression shows that admission motor FIM (p = 0.001) and Token test (p = 0.040), adjusted for clinical, language, and non-verbal reasoning variables, resulted as independent predictors of motor FIM scores at discharge, while Raven’s CPM resulted close to statistical significance. Conclusions: Motor function at admission resulted as the variable that most affects the motor recovery of post-stroke patients with aphasia after rehabilitation. A linguistic test requiring also non-linguistic abilities, including attention and working memory (i.e. Token test) is an independent predictor as well.
KW - Aphasia
KW - Cognitive deficits
KW - Predictors of recovery
KW - Stroke
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U2 - 10.1080/10749357.2017.1305654
DO - 10.1080/10749357.2017.1305654
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032302677
VL - 24
SP - 428
EP - 434
JO - Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation
JF - Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation
SN - 1074-9357
IS - 6
ER -